Mick Foley Talks Fans Resenting John Cena, Forgetting Lines On Raw, Being Thrown Off Hell In A Cell

WWE Raw General Manager Mick Foley was on the Talk is Jericho podcast to discuss many topics. Foley described his conversation with Vince McMahon coming up with the Mankind name, and what he was originally going to be called. He also discussed how McMahon wanted him to wear a mask because he did not see much market value in him without one.

Foley discussed how John Cena is a great wrestler and promo-cutter who gets an unjust evaluation from the fans. "To me, he's one of the best promo guys out there. A lot of people don't want to admit that," Foley stated. He added, "[I got] a real feel of how the Cena resentment was, like real resentment. Because, I was in Florida, I was working for TNA, I was watching Monday Night Raw, and he just nailed a promo. And so I had maybe 10,000 followers at that time on Twitter, and I said, 'Great promo by John Cena. I think more people need to recognize his legacy'... I received like 600 messages within minutes. Like, one or two minutes. [My daughter] goes, 'That's impossible.' I saw that there were a lot of negative ones. I said, 'Try to find a bad John Cena pay-per-view.' And then they all responded with the same pay-per-view. And I said, well that's the exception that proves the rule. And then it was [from fans], 'Well, he just had good opponents to carry him.' I said, 'So he's had good opponents every month for eight years?'"

At a recent WWE Raw episode in Columbus, Ohio, Foley forgot what city he was in and named the wrong one. Since then, he has made a joke out of it by writing the city on his hand. This is not the only time that Foley has forgot something on the script, as there have been many instances where the live Raw cameras would catch Stephanie McMahon feeding him lines to refresh his memory. Foley explained how he advised Stephanie to feed him lines from the very start of returning as General Manager.

"The first time I went out there with Stephanie [McMahon], I said, 'Stephanie, look. Umm, I'm probably gonna forget things out there. And I'm not gonna panic, because I know it's gonna happen, but just be aware that it will happen, and you may need to give me a couple of buzzwords.' But what I didn't tell her was, it's probably gonna happen within the first 15 seconds of me being out there. And somebody says to me the next day, 'Did Stephanie say five alarm fire to you?' [I said], 'Yes she did.' And so I need a little help, and once I have that little bit of help, it can push me through."

Perhaps the most memorable match of Foley's career was the Hell in a Cell match in 1998 against The Undertaker. During the match, Foley was tossed off the top of the cell, and crashed into the announcer's table, body splatted on the floor. Watching the Hell in a Cell match that occurred the previous year between Undertaker and Shawn Michaels, he did not know what to do to top it, especially since he believes that Michaels is one of the greatest wrestlers of all time. So, an idea came up during a conversation with Terry Funk, which was initially presented as a joke.

"I was like, what am I gonna do," said Foley. "And Terry [Funk] goes, 'Cactus. I think you should start the match on top of the cell. What if you were thrown off of that cell?' And he's joking around, and he's laughing. And I said, I think I can do that. And so that was why I pitched the idea of coming off [the cell] the first time. [When I landed], I was hurt for six weeks after that, but the initial feel was relief that it was over."

You can hear the full interview here. If you use any of the quotes from this article, please credit Talk is Jericho with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.